Annals of Rome

The Good
This game is much more than a military conquest game. It is an economical, political and social game as well. There are so many variables taken into account when you move through each phase of the game that it makes it significantly more complex and engaging than the monotonous, repetitive games we've all played. Unlike many other games, all of these variables work behind the scenes and controlling the empire DOES NOT become an exercise in tedium like newer games. These factors make it a simple yet deeply engrossing game. A must try!

The graphics may not be pretty and CGA graphics can be a little annoying after a while but they serve the game's purpose well.

Conquer the Roman world and defend the Empire from the teeming hordes of barbarian tribes like the Marcomanni, the Alemanni, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Huns, Dacians, Turks, Arabs, etc. Continue your defence of the empire with up to 13 enemy nations at any one time. There are no political tricks to be played, no alliances or trickery. You must protect the Empire through legions and gaining political support for the Republic. If you don't, you run the risk of civil war and frequent changes of emperor.

Manage and plan the political, social, economical and military goals for the Roman Empire. You decide how long it will last, not the history books. I kept the empire alive in Italia until the 23rd century AD.

Utterly destroy your enemies. Watch as they wither away with the passage of time as your forces establish Roman provinces in their domain, spreading the Pax Romana throughout the Roman world.

The Bad
Troubleshooting information would really help when trying to run this game on new computers. It works on some but not others. It would be great if someone could tell us how to run it when you get the display adaptor message at the beginning that ends the program.

I recommend playing this game with an old Pentium-MMX computer as the older video cards were more compatible with old games than newer computers.

There really isn't anything negative about this game. It was superbly done and in my opinion, stood the test of time.

The Bottom Line
If you want to defy history and set right what the Romans did wrong with their empire than this is the game for you. This is not a tactical game, it is purely strategy on a grand, engrossing scale where you must plan and anticipate the economics, social, military and political issues that will plague your encircled empire.

The game starts out with you controlling Italia in 273 BC during the time of the Republic. You will be attacked from all sides throughout the game regardless of the size of the Roman Empire. The only way to prevent the fall of Rome is to expand and defend the Empire and keep the people happy by making wise decisions and keeping a LOW TAX RATE.

Annals of Rome gives you, the gamer, the opportunity to create the Roman Empire and surpass its glories and stand the test of time longer than 476 AD when the West Roman Empire finally fell. I succeeded in maintaining the Empire's far-flung boundaries until the Arab conquests of the 7th century AD.

How long can you maintain the Pax Romana?

The Good
I played this at least 15 years ago on an Atari 520ST and although even then I probably thought the graphics were crude, I got caught up in it.

One review suggested it was flawed because it allowed play to continue indefinitely. Each turn in the game represents 25 years in real time. You start during the early years of the republic. With a bit of luck and skill you end up in the era of the empire.

In my final game and longest lasting I still had a Roman Empire in the 17th century. It was a shadow of what it had been but that made it all the more fascinating to me. I ended up managing to hold onto territories like Cappodocia (Turkey or Asian Minor) but only turn by turn. It almost seemed as if the game logic was stuck historically at about the time Constantinople fell to the Turks and the last vestiges of the empire were wiped off the map.

I no longer recall if eventually I was vanquished or after several hundred game turns I realized the jog was up. I could not conquer or hold any territories for longer than a turn at a time, and so I may have quit.

All I can say is that for the $20 I probably paid for it, I enjoyed double that in hours spent playing.

The Bad
There is nothing actually that I would remark on critically. For the time it was already unsophisticated in many ways. But the elements of play that engaged me made up for it.

The Bottom Line
engaging